Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in July

Not Dead Yet

From Wednesday, July 3rd, Disney+

Nell Serrano is a journalist at her local newspaper, the SoCal Independent, tasked with writing obituaries. She’s trying to get her life back in order after her wedding plans fell apart, and luckily there’s no shortage of people ready to appear with valuable advice. Trouble is, they’re the ghosts of all the dead people Nell – played by the Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez – has been writing about.

Her boss at the newspaper is Lexi, and when the newspaper’s owner, Lexi’s dad Duncan, pays a visit to the office, he asks Nell to write up his obituary, as he’s concerned about what will be written about him after his death. But when Duncan is suddenly taken ill and hospitalised, it looks as if Nell may be about to get a new adviser.

Brats

From Friday, July 5th, Disney+

We fondly remember the so-called Brat Pack movies of the 1980s – The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and St Elmo’s Fire among them – but how do the actors who starred in them, such as Molly Ringwald, Judd Hirsch, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore, recall their days as Hollywood’s brightest young things? In this documentary film, directed by the former Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy, they reunite to look back and to talk about how the films tapped into the teenage angst of the time, how they handled their enormous fame, and why not all of them were happy to be labelled Brat Packers.

Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer

From Thursday, July 11th, Disney+

In the late 1970s the United States was gripped by a spate of serial killings, and the FBI was desperate to track down and apprehend the murderers before they found their next victims. They turned to an unlikely source: a paediatric nurse named Dr Ann Burgess, who pioneered the nascent art of criminal profiling (and became the inspiration for the Netflix series Mindhunter).

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Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in July

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Her ability to think like a killer helped the FBI to catch dozens of murderers, and her compassion for and empathy with the mostly female victims put women’s safety at the centre of the conversation. This series, from executive producers Dakota and Elle Fanning, looks at how Burgess meticulously examined the mind of a serial killer to help save lives.

Simone Biles: Rising

From Wednesday, July 17th, Netflix

In 2021 the American gymnast Simone Biles was at the top of her game, with 37 Olympic and World Championship medals. She was widely expected to add to her medal haul at the delayed 2020 Olympics, in Tokyo, but she shocked the world by pulling out of several key competitions there, citing mental-health issues.

This documentary series follows Biles as she retreats, refocuses and retrains in preparation for her return to Olympic competition at Paris 2024. As she says in the series, she has unfinished business, and is ready to retake her rightful place at the top of her sport.

Cobra Kai

From Thursday, July 18th, Netflix

Welcome back to the Miyagiverse one last time as the TV show spawned by The Karate Kid reaches its sixth and final series. Cobra Kai is wrapping up with an epic 15-episode season that will be broken into three parts – released this month, in November and in 2025 – to keep fans gripped right to the last. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka return as rival karate senseis Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, who are determined to go out with a bang and a wallop. Their students are pumped up and ready to compete in the world championships of karate, the Sekai Taikai. But with the Cobra Kai dojo eliminated from the Valley, how are they going to get to the next level?

Master of the House

From Thursday, July 18th, Netflix

With echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, this dark, debauched thriller from Thailand explores the power imbalance between wealthy, privileged people and their put-upon servants, and how that balance can suddenly tilt – with deadly consequences. When Asia’s richest diamond tycoon, Roongroj, marries his young former maid Kaimook, eyebrows are raised both upstairs and downstairs. But when Roongroj dies in mysterious circumstances, a battle royale begins among his children over his considerable estate. Meanwhile, the tormented servants, whom the family have treated like animals, are finding it hard to keep quiet about their dead former employer’s dark secrets.

Those About to Die

From Friday, July 19th, Prime Video

Can’t wait for Paul Mescal to rock up in his O’Neills toga in Gladiator 2? Then this rollicking Roman epic series, starring Anthony Hopkins, should sate your bloodlust in the meantime. Director Roland Emmerich promises to immerse viewers in the world of chariot racing and gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome, as Emperor Vespasian (Hopkins) gives the people of Rome what they want: bread and circuses, plus lots of death and dismemberment.

With no shortage of slaves to do all the work, the Romans are bored and craving some ultraviolence, so a new arena is built to stage spectacular, bloody chariot races and gladiator fights for the delight of the populace: the Colosseum.

Lady in the Lake

From Friday, July 19th, Apple TV+

Natalie Portman is Jewish housewife Maddie Schwartz in this thriller series set in 1960s Baltimore and based on 2019 bestselling novel by Laura Lippman. Dreaming of escaping her dull life and reinventing herself as an investigative journalist, Maddie becomes obsessed with the mysterious death of a mother and political activist, Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram). But how did Maddie know where to find Cleo’s body, and what secrets from Maddie’s own past is she trying to keep from coming to the surface?

Time Bandits

From Wednesday, July 24th, Apple TV+

Whose idea was it to create a TV series based on Terry Gilliam’s classic fantasy film from 1981? It was Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords; Taika Waititi, the Jojo Rabbit director; and the Inbetweeners creator Iain Morris. Clement and Waititi say they were huge fans of the original movie, starring Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Ian Holm, Michael Palin and John Cleese, so with luck they’ll capture its surreal spirit in this 10-episode reboot. Kal-El Tuck stars as 11-year-old Kevin, who finds himself whisked through time and space by a motley crew of thieving misfits. Lisa Kudrow stars as the leader of this ragtag band of robbers, with the Irish actor Tadhg Murphy also starring.

The Decameron

From Thursday, July 25th, Netflix

With the world in the grip of a pandemic, a group of rich people load up on wine and fine food and head off to a remote villa to have some fun in the sun and ride out the virus. But this isn’t 2020: it’s 1348, and these toffs are escaping the bubonic plague in this historical comedy loosely based on the short stories of the Renaissance writer Giovanni Boccaccio.

In 14th century Florence, with the Black Death sweeping through Italy, a group of nobles flee to the country with their servants in the hope of having an alcohol-soaked sex romp, but pretty soon things descend from Love Island shenanigans to full-on Lord of the Flies anarchy.